Questions regarding the criteria for appointment

9. I am having great difficulty finding a suitable replacement external examiner: is there anything I can do to delay the appointment?
10. We have a new School-based arrangement with an overseas institution and wish to nominate an external examiner, who is highly respected in the field, but has no previous external examining experience. How is the EEAP likely to receive this nomination?
11. I am currently looking for an external examiner for a course. A preferred nominee is retired. How is the EEAP likely to receive this nomination?
12. I am a member of SASQC / VSSC – as part of the meeting papers to consider in advance, I've received a nomination for a new external examiner, where it is not immediately obvious how the expertise of the nominee fits with the course to be examined. What should I do?
13. The person I wish to nominate:
    1. already holds two external examiner appointments elsewhere
    2. does not have any external examiner experience
    3. is not an academic but have academic/professional/specialist experience.
    Is this acceptable?

9. I am having great difficulty finding a suitable replacement external examiner – and I really want to take care to nominate the best person for the role / course. Is there anything I can do to delay a little?

There may be. If the tenure of the current external examiner has not been extended previously, you could ask if he / she would consider carrying out the role for a further year. Otherwise, consider if there is another suitable external examiner appointed to a course within the School, who might agree to additional duties for a temporary period (in which case you would need to complete and process an EE2 form for additional duties). This hopefully, would provide sufficient time to seek out and secure someone else.

10. We have a new School-based arrangement with an institution in Portugal to deliver a BA (H) Gadgets and Gizmos. We wish to nominate an external examiner, who, whilst highly respected in the field, does not have any previous experience of external examining. We really want this person to be our external examiner and she has taught on a number of similar courses at her home institution. How is the EEAP likely to receive this nomination? (Also see section 13 b).

It depends on the case made by the School. The EEAP will seek assurances that the nomination has been well thought through within the School, and that SASQC has debated the strengths and potential shortcomings of the nomination, before signing it off for release from the School. The EEAP is likely to ask questions around support arrangements, for example:

• Mentoring:
  • Will she be part of an external examining team?
  • If not, will the courses she examines be considered at a Board of Examiners meeting at the same time as other courses, so that she has some contact with other examiners.
  • How much contact will she have with NTU staff?
• Induction:
  • How does the School plan to induct her into the role and the course?
  • Can the School secure her attendance at a forum for new external examiners to be held in Nottingham?
• Any other arrangements:
  • Has the School other arrangements in place, which will equip her to take up the role?

Overall, SASQC is advised to acknowledge the lack of experience, but at the same time make a strong case for the nomination, and detail any support arrangements that will be put in place.

11. I am currently looking for an external examiner for a course. A preferred nominee is retired. How is the EEAP likely to receive this nomination?

The EEAP would want to be assured that if the nominee is retired they would still have the currency of subject knowledge to be able to perform their role as External Examiner.

12. I am a member of SASQC / VSSC – as part of the meeting papers to consider in advance, I've received a nomination for a new external examiner, where it is not immediately obvious how the expertise of the nominee fits with the course to be examined. What should I do?

It would be highly unlikely that a course team nominates someone with unrelated expertise. It is more likely that the relevance (i.e. how the expertise fits with the course) has been missed off the form. If there is time before the meeting, alert the secretary of SASQC / VSSC – it may be possible to secure additional information in advance. If following receipt of additional information and discussion at SASQC / VSSC you still feel the nomination is weak – make your views clear, to inform any decision.

13. The person I wish to nominate already holds two external examiner appointments elsewhere. Will this be acceptable?

At face value – No. However, there may be exceptional circumstances where a further appointment will be approved, for example if one of the two existing appointments is due to end, or if the existing appointment(s) are not substantive. This would need to be debated by SASQC and EEAP.

My proposed external examiner has no external examining experience? Also see section 10.

If the proposed external examiner has no (or no recent) external examiner experience it would assist the EEAP in their decision making to know what additional processes are in place to enable the course team to support the new external examiner in their new role. All newly nominated external examiners are invited to the NTU’s Welcome and Induction Event, however further examples of ways in which the team may assist an external examiner could be:

1. for a member of the team to meet the newly appointed external examiner to ensure that they are supported in their role of external examiner at NTU;
2. to invite an experienced external examiner, who performs the role on a similar course, to assist/mentor the new external and offer support should it required;
3. to organise a meeting/contact with other external examiners in a similar course to talk over the role;
4. to attend a Board of Examiners meeting prior to taking up role as external examiner.

Please make reference in the rationale to any additional support the team will offer outside the usual NTU Welcome and Induction Events.

The Specialist or Professional External Examiner.

In the majority of cases courses of a vocational nature seek to ensure that there is an appropriate balance of academic and professional practice expertise within the external examining team. In exceptional cases a specialist/professional practitioner external examiner may be recruited as the sole external examiner. In such circumstances the External Examiner Appointments Panel (EEAP) will seek a strong rationale in support of the nomination. In particular, the rationale should include:

1. why the team is seeking a sole specialist/professional practitioner appointment; and
2. explicit details of how the team will provide support to enable the specialist / professional practitioner external examiner to undertake his/her duties and ensure that:
   • the academic standard for each award and award element is set and maintained at the appropriate level and that student performance is properly judged against this;
   • the assessment process measures student achievement against the intended outcomes of the course appropriately, and is fair and equitably operated;
   • our awards are comparable in standard with those of other higher education institutions;

By way of guidance, additional support may take the forms of one or more of the following:

1. an existing appointed academic external examiner working in partnership with the professional practitioner external examiner for a significant period of time: (this is as much about the professional practitioner external examiner being confident in their role as it is about the confidence the course team has in the external);
2. samples of marked work being provided at the start of the professional practitioner external examiner’s tenure, with discussion on how these marks were arrived at;
3. the course team/school organising a workshop/event on assessment to which the professional practitioner external examiner would attend (please notify event date to EEAP, via CADQ);
4. a guide to higher education assessment to be included in the pack for the new professional practitioner external examiner.